Lawmakers push to reform wrongful conviction compensation in Georgia

ATLANTA - He spent more than two decades in jail for a 1985 double homicide that he did not commit. Now, Dennis Perry hopes the state legislature will compensate him for his lost years.

"I will always carry this with me," Perry said on the steps of the Brunswick County Courthouse in July 2021.  "At this time in my life, I should be able to have my finances in order so that my wife and I can think about retirement.  Instead, I have no income.  My health is no good and I must start all over again."  

Perry is one of two men for whom state lawmakers will decide this session whether to authorize a payment for their wrongful conviction and time served unnecessarily.  

Currently, in order to be compensated, an exonerated person must find a legislator to draft a resolution on their behalf.  The bill then has to go through the full committee process and pass both the House and the Senate.

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"The way that the state does it now is it's a very political process, and it's done on an individual basis," explained state Rep. Scott Holcomb, D-Atlanta.  "We're trying to reform it and take the politics out of it."

Rep. Holcomb is one of lawmakers behind the "Wrongful Conviction Compensation Act."

The legislation would create a five-person panel to evaluate these types of claims. The panel would be made up of a judge, a district attorney, a defense attorney and two other experts in either forensics or law.

"Everything moves through the General Assembly so quickly during the session that the lawmakers don't have a chance to really dig in and figure out the facts of this and what happened," said Clare Gilbert, executive director of the Georgia Innocence Project.  

"So, the new process is designed to put that evaluation into the hands of a panel of experts who are familiar with wrongful convictions, how these happen and can make in an informed and consistent way a determination of whether the person is innocent and should be compensated."

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The bill also provides a range for the panel to use when determining the proper amount of compensation, $50,000 to $100,000 per year of wrongful incarceration.

"It would mean that people have a clear, predictable, consistent method of receiving compensation for their wrongful conviction," said Gilbert.  "We often think that when a wrongfully convicted person is exonerated it's the end of their injustice nightmare, but it's actually the beginning of a whole 'nother struggle."  

The House of Representatives approved the legislation March 15, but it stalled in a Senate committee earlier this week.  Those who support it, though, remain hopeful that it could beat Monday's Sine Die deadline.

"My wish would be that this would never be needed, and it's a statute that would be on the books as a protective aspect of our policy, but would never be needed," said Rep. Holcomb.  "But the sad thing is we know that it is needed and that's why we need to pass it."

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